Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner Dies at 54

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the actor who played teenage son Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has died at age 54 in an accidental drowning in Costa Rica, authorities there said.​

Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Department said Monday that Warner drowned Sunday afternoon on a beach on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. He was swimming at Playa Grande de Cocles in Limon province when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean.​

“He was rescued by people on the beach,” the department’s initial report said, but first responders from Costa Rica’s Red Cross found him without vital signs and he was taken to the morgue.​​

On The Cosby Show, Warner created many TV moments etched in the memories of Generation X children and their parents, including a pilot-episode argument with Bill Cosby’s Cliff Huxtable about money and an ear piercing he tries to hide from his dad. Theo was the only son among four daughters in the household of Cliff and Clair Huxtable (Phylicia Rashad) on the NBC sitcom, and he would be one of the prime representations of American teenage boyhood on a show that was the most popular in America for much of its run from 1984 to 1992.​

(From left) Tempestt Bledsoe, Lisa Bonet, Warner, Phylicia Rashad and Bill Cosby made TV history on NBC's "The Cosby Show," which ran from 1984 to 1992.

NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection

Warner played the role for eight seasons in all 197 episodes, winning an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986.

For many, the lasting image of the character, and of Warner, is of him wearing a badly botched mock designer shirt sewn by his sister Denise, played by Lisa Bonet.​

NBA hall-of-famer Magic Johnson was among those paying him tribute Monday. Johnson said on X that he and his wife are sad to hear of the death of their friend.

“We were both super fans of the hit Cosby Show and continued to follow his career on shows like Malcolm and Eddie and The Resident,” Johnson said. “Every time I ran into Malcolm, we would have deep and fun conversations about basketball, life, and business. He will truly be missed.”

Like the rest of the cast of The Cosby Show, Warner had to contend with the sexual assault allegations against its titular star, whose conviction in a Pennsylvania court was later overturned.

Warner told The Associated Press in 2015 that the show’s legacy was “tarnished.”